This invention relates to toy wheeled vehicles which have a spring-driven motor and, more particularly, to a toy vehicle with a motor spring which is charged by the user pushing down on the vehicle.
The use of spring-driven motors is well known in the art of toy wheeled vehicles. A variety of mechanisms have been used in the past to charge the motor spring, including wind-up keys and friction wheels. A simple mechanism which uses very simple physical actions to charge the motor would be considered especially advantageous, as such a simple method would allow the toy wheeled vehicle to be played with by children of such tender years as to lack the strength or coordination to manipulate a wind up key or a friction wheel. To the degree that simple charging motions could be accomplished with a simple mechanism, that would be an additional advantage, as simple mechanisms tend to be less expensive to manufacture and are often more rugged and durable in use.
It is also known in the prior art to provide toy wheeled vehicles with suspension mechanisms for the wheels, allowing the wheels to move relative to the vehicle chassis and body. Such suspension systems add realism to the play scenario, allowing the toy wheels to better replicate the operation of the wheels of full-sized vehicles. It is further known in the prior art to provide toys generally with pop-up features, which are particularly intriguing to younger children. The ability to combine a simple spring motor winding mechanism with one or more of these other features should thus be especially attractive.
The invention is a spring-driven toy vehicle comprising front and rear chassis portions, each with front and rear ends. The front chassis portion supports at least one front wheel at the front end and is hingably connected at the rear end to the front end of the rear chassis portion. The rear chassis portion supports at least one rear wheel at the rear end. The chassis portions are capable of a pivotal motion relative to one another from a first undeflected position to a second deflected position. A drive motor is mounted to one of the front and rear chassis portions. The motor contains a motor spring. A drive axle is operably connected with the motor spring. The drive axle is further operably connected to one of the at least one front and rear wheels to rotate the at least one connected wheel. A rotational coupling between one of the chassis portions and the motor spring is configured to transfer the pivotal motion of the chassis portions relative to one another into a rotational motion to wind the motor spring.